I am a fish and I live in a bowl
And to one day escape is my ultimate goal
I am owned by a man who stands up six feet tall
Who I watch through my bowl which he bought at the mall

He often ignores me as hour by hour
I plot and I pray I can summon the power
To be something more than a mere decoration
The life of a goldfish is fraught with frustration

To him I’m a nick-knack he thinks has no feelings
Like a vase with a flower or fan on the ceiling
I live in this water I’ve lived in for years
I suppose that’s why he doesn’t notice my tears

I eat all alone and there’s no room to swim
I’m a prisoner held on a slave-owner’s whim
I don’t have a mate so I can’t even spawn
I must leave a short message to read when I’m gone

Maybe another somebody will see
And have mercy and reach in and let me be free
“Find a pond and a mate for me please if you read this”
But the note that I scratched on my bowl went quite heedless

So I’ll live out my life in this lonely glass tomb
Till I float upside-down in my fish bowl of doom
As I think about life maybe I’m not alone
Maybe others are trapped in small bowls of their own

There are prisons of stone and of wood and of glass
Or perhaps they’re imprisoned by ghosts from their past
So remember if you really want to be free
Check your pockets because maybe you hold the key

Jeff Burkhart’s “Rhyme and Reason”

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